Clip attachment for writing instruments or the like

ABSTRACT

A tubular member for a writing instrument or the like is provided within its peripheral wall with an elongated passage, which extends in axial direction from one end of the tubular member into its wall and merges at its inner end with the interior of the tubular member to form at this inner end an abutment face. The short leg of a U-shaped clip, provided at the free end thereof with downwardly bent resilient tongues, is inserted into the passage so that the tongues abut against the abutment face to thereby anchor the leg in the passage. The tubular member with the passage and the abutment face is preferably injection molded about a core constructed in such a manner that it may be withdrawn after the molding operation in axial direction leaving the axially extending passage provided with the abutment face in the wall of the tubular member.

CLIP ATTACHMENT FOR WRITING INSTRUMENTS OR THE LIKE [75] lnventors: Otto Katz, Schwabach; Werner Kranich, Rosstal, both of Germany [73] Assignee: A. W. Faber-Caste, Nurnberg,

Germany [22] Filed: July 27, 1973 [21] Appl, No.: 383,446

[30] Foreign Application Priority Data Aug. 2, 1972 Germany 2237946 [52] 11.5. C1. 24/11 11, 249/175, 264/328 [51] Int. Cl B43k 25/00, B29f 1/00 [58] Field of Search 24/3 J, 11 F, 11 S, 11 M, 24/11 P [56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,247,957 11/1917 Heath 24/11 F 1,406,378 2/1922 Hasselquistv... 24/11 F 1,490,231 4/1924 Poole 24/11 M 1,696,183 12/1928 Bassett 24/11 F 1 Oct. 22, 1974 FOREIGN PATENTS OR APPLICATIONS 1,428,677 1/1966 France 24/11 F Primary Examiner-Donald A. Griffin Attorney, Agent, or Firm-Michael S. Striker 5 7 ABSTRACT A tubular member for a writing instrument or the like is provided within its peripheral wall with an elongated passage, which extends in axial direction from one end of the tubular member into its wall and merges at its inner end with the interior of the tubular member to form at this inner end an abutment face. The short leg of a U-shaped clip, provided at the free end thereof with downwardly bent resilient tongues, is inserted into the passage so that the tongues abut against the abutment face to thereby anchor the leg in the passage. The tubular member with the passage and the abutment face is preferably injection molded about a core constructed in such a manner that it may be withdrawn after the molding operation in axial direction leaving the axially extending passage provided with the abutment face in the wall of the tubular member.

4 Claims, 2 Drawing lFigures CLIP ATTACHMENT FOR WRITING INSTRUMENTS OR THE LIKE BACKGROUND BACKGROUND THE INVENTION The present invention relates to clip attachments for writing instruments or the like in which the short leg which light of a U-shaped clip is inserted into an axially extending passage of the tubular shank or cap of color writing instrument and in which the short leg of the U- shaped clip is provided with a bent resilient portion serving to anchor the clip in the aforementioned passage. entire The anchoring of the clip must be made in such a manner that any forces imparted to the clip in axial direction must be securely taken up. Furthermore, and especially if the clip is directly attached to the shank of the writing instrument, the attachment has to also be made in such a manner that during bending of the outer leg of the U-shaped clip, the attached leg will not engage with the actuating mechanism of the writing instrument so as to avoid any damage of this actuating mechanism.

Various ways are known in the art for attaching clips to writing instruments and such attachments are for instance shown in the German Pat. No. 1,251,677 or in the German Gebrauchsmuster 1,829,324. Such known attachments are, however, relatively complicated in their construction, or have the additional disadvantage that they cannot be used in writing instruments which do not have a separate cap, such as for instance ball pens, or that the attachment is liable to damage the tubular member during assembly with the clip.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION OBJECTS which will assure that during bending of the clip toward the axis of the tubular member to which it is attached, no portion of the clip will be pressed against any actuating mechanism of the writing instrument.

With these and other objects in view, which will become apparent as the description proceeds, the present invention mainly comprises a U-shaped clip having a short leg provided spaced from its free end with one or two transverse slits so as to form in the region of the free end of the short leg one or two tongues which are inclined to the remainder of the short leg and form at the slit an engaging face. The short leg with the tongue or tongues thereon isinserted into an elongated passage provided in the paripheral wall of a tubular member of the writing instrument for instance the shank of the latter. The passage extends in axial direction of the tubular member from one end thereof into the wall, and opens at the inner end into the interior of the tubular member so as to form at its inner end an abutment face. The length of the .elongated passage corresponds to the length of the short leg of the clip minus the width of the tongue so that the inserted clip is anchored in the passage by engagement of the engaging face of the tongue with the abutment face on the tubular member.

The present invention relates also to a special core for molding the tubular member with the aforementioned passage, as well as to a method of molding the member by means of the aforementioned core.

The novel features which are considered as characteristic of the invention are set forth in particular in invention.

appended claims. The invention itself, however, both as to its construction and its mode of operation, together with additional features and advantages thereof, will be best understood upon perusal of the following detailed description of certain specific embodiments with reference to the accompanying drawing.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the clip and the tubular member with the passage formed therein into which the short leg of the tubular member of the clip is to be inserted, the tubular member is shown in longitudinal cross section and the clip is shown before insertion into the passage of the tubular member; position FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a core for forming the tubular member with the passage therein by injection molding DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Referring now to the drawing, and more specifically to FIG. 1 of the same, it will be seen that the arrangement according to the present invention comprises a U-shaped clip ll formed from a metal strip of rectangular cross section having a thickness a and comprising a long leg la and a short leg lb integrally connected by a connection portion 2 extending transverse to the two legs. The short leg lb is provided spaced from the free end thereof with two transversely extending slits 3 so as to form in the region of the free end of the short leg 1b two tongues 4 which are respectively downwardly inclined position opposite direction with respect to the plane of the short leg so as to form at the slits 3 abutment faces 4a on the tongues, only one of which is shown in FIG. 1.

The shank or sleeve 5 of the writing instrument in the form of a tubular member has a stepped bore 10 so as to form at the free end 6 thereof a section 8 of maximum wall thickness and an elongated passage 7, which extends from the free end 6 in axial direction through the wall portion of the section 8. The passage 7 opens forwardly of the shoulder 8a, the section 8 of the largest wall thickness forms at the junction with the adjacent section of smaller wall thickness, so as to form at the inner end of the passage 7 an abutment face 9a. The elongated passage 7 is closed toward the interior thereof by an uninterrupted wall portion 9 and toward the exterior thereof by an uninterrupted wall portion 11. It will be noted that the wall portion 11 ends short of the outer free end 6 of the tubular member 5.

To connect the clip 1 to the tubular member 5, the short leg lb of the clip is inserted into the passage 7, whereby the tongues 4 will resiliently bend into the plane of the short leg, and after the tongues pass the abutment face 9a, these tongues will snap back to the position shown in FIG. 1 so that the engagement faces 4a of the tongues will engage the abutment face 9a of the tubular member to thereby anchor the clip in the passage of the tubular member. The length of said passage 7 has therefore to correspond to the length of the short leg minus the width of the tongues 4. As mentioned before, the outer wall portion 11 ends short of the free end 6 of the tubular member so that when the clip 1 is assembled with the tubular member, the outer surface of the connecting portion 2 of the clip will be flush with the annular end face 6 of the tubular member. The uninterrupted inner wall portion 9 will assure that the short leg 1b cannot be bent inwardly into the bore of the tubular member, even if the outer leg 1a of the clip should be pressed toward the axis of the tubular member.

The tubular member with the stepped bore 110 and the passage 7 therein is preferably injection molded about a core 12 as shown in FIG. 2. This core 2 may comprise, if the bore in the cylindrical member 5 is formed of three sections of different diameters, of three coaxial cylindrical portions of different outer diameter, that is the portion 13 of largest diameter, a portion 14 of smaller diameter and a third portion 15 again of smaller diameter, and a web 16 projecting axially forwardly from the portion 13 of largest diameter and having an outer surface corresponding to the peripheral surface of the portion 13. The portion of the web extending over the cylindrical portion 14 is integrally joined over the whole length thereof with the cylindrical portion and a portion of the web 16 extending over the cylindrical portion 15 of smallest diameter adjacent to the cylindrical portion 14 is integrally connected to the peripheral surface of the cylindrical portion 15 by an enlargement 17, of the same width as the web 16, which is extended by a rib 18 of smaller width which ends short of the left end, as viewed in FIG. 2, of the web 16 so that the end portion of this web projects freely over part of the peripheral surface of the cylindrical portion 15. It will also be noted that the end face 19 of the core portion 15 of smallest diameter projects slightly beyond the end face 16a of the web 16 for a distance equal to the wall thickness a of the connecting portion 2 of the clip 1.

The tubular member 5 may be injection molded from plastic material in a mold, not shown in the drawing, having a cylindrical cavity corresponding to the outer diameter of the tubular member 5 into which the core 12, as shown in FIG. 2, is coaxially inserted, and after molding the tubular member 5 the core may be withdrawn therefrom in axial direction, with the portion of largest diameter 13 leading, so that after withdrawal of the core from the thus molded tubular member, the latter will be provided in the end section 8 of largest wall thickness with the passage 7 as shown in FIG. 1.

It will be understood that each of the elements described above, or two or more together, may also find a useful application in other types of clip attachments for writing instruments differing from the types described above.

While the invention has been illustrated and described as embodied in a clip attachment for a writing instrument in which the short leg of a U-shaped clip is anchored in a passage formed in the wall of the tubular member of a writing instrument, it is not intended to be limited to the details shown, since various modifications and structural changes may be made without departing in any way from the spirit of the present invention.

What is claimed as new and desired to be protected by Letters Patent is set forth in the appended claims:

1. In a writing instrument or the like, a combination comprising a tubular. member provided in the wall thereof with an elongated passage extending in axial direction of the tubular member from one end thereof in said wall, said passage opening at the inner end thereof into the interior of the tubular member so as to form at its inner end an abutment face; and a U-shaped clip having a long and a short leg and provided spaced from the free end of the latter with at least one transverse slit partly separating therefrom a tongue inclined to the remainder of the short leg and forming at the slit an engaging face, said short leg being inserted in said passage, the length of which corresponds to the length of the short leg minus the width of said tongue so that the clip is anchored in said passage by engagement of said engaging face with said abutment face.

2. A combination as defined in claim 1, wherein said tubular member has in the region of said inserted short leg and radially inwardly of said passage an uninterrupted annular wall portion.

3. A combination as defined in claim 2, wherein said tubular member has in the region of said one end an axially extending portion of a wall thickness greater than in the remainder of the tubular member so as to form at the junction of said wall portion with the remainder of said tubular member an annular shoulder, said passage opening into the interior of said tubular member within said portion of greater wall thickness.

4. A combination as defined in claim 3, wherein said U-shaped'clip is formed from a metal strip having a predetermined thickness, and wherein the wall portion radially outwardly of said passage ends short of said one end of said tubular member for a distance at least equal to the thickness of said' strip. 

1. In a writing instrument or the like, a combination comprising a tubular member provided in the wall thereof with an elongated passage extending in axial direction of the tubular member from one end thereof in said wall, said passage opening at the inner end thereof into the interior of the tubular member so as to form at its inner end an abutment face; and a U-shaped clip having a long and a short leg and provided spaced from the free end of the latter with at least one transverse slit partly separating therefrom a tongue inclined to the remainder of the short leg and forming at the slit an engaging face, said short leg being inserted in said passage, the length of which corresponds to the length of the short leg minus the width of said tongue so that the clip is anchored in said passage by engagement of said engaging face with said abutment face.
 2. A combination as defined in claim 1, wherein said tubular member has in the region of said inserted short leg and radially inwardly of said passage an uninterrupted annular wall portion.
 3. A combination as defined in claim 2, wherein said tubular member has in the region of said one end an axially extending portion of a wall thickness greater than in the remainder of the tubular member so as to form at the junction of said wall portion with the remainder of said tubular member an annular shoulder, said passage opening into the interior of said tubular member within said portion of greater wall thickness.
 4. A combination as defined in claim 3, wherein said U-shaped clip is formed from a metal strip having a predetermined thickness, and wherein the wall portion radially outwardly of said passage ends short of said one end of said tubular member for a distance at least equal to the thickness of said strip. 